Wednesday, June 06, 2007

I always love surprises


A picture of the surprise flowers on my desk this morning. Gardenias from our landlord. He brings me flowers from his yard occasionally. The entire area smells heavenly. Heady. Like a summer evening on my front porch. With a tall drink and soft candlelight. He is a really funny man and practical joker, but he has chosen to treat me today. Thanks so much.

Last night I picked Abby up at ball practice, late. I got there a little early and took a book. Parked under the street lights and rolled the windows down. I only read a few paragraphs before the sounds of a summer southern night caught my attention. Kids laughing and playing close by and in the distance. Skateboard wheels in the other parking lot. Cicadas and evening birdsong. Even the drone of mosquitoes. I found myself absorbing these sounds and realizing that there is so much about my life that is special and at that moment I was fully focused on appreciation of so many things.


I thrifted this album many weeks ago at one of my favorite thrift haunts. I bought it thinking that I would take it apart and use the cover as a mount for ATC and the heavy textured papers as pages for a journal assemblage. The ribbon and the wedding picture will also find new lives in some way.

Yesterday at lunch, I picked it up from the back seat and opened it. I was looking for the best way to deconstruct it.

Imagine my surprise whenI found this........



Handwritten quotes are sprinkled all through it. Randomly. The way I collect quotes. As if the fairies decided a surprise needs to come your way today. This was fun. I smiled and then started to read all of these collected quotes. I will add these to my quote books and still use these pages, but now in a different way. Love these kind of surprises.

Last night I spent some time with my Mom who has been thrifting herself. 70's era stitching books that I will be borrowing to use the patterns from. She found yarn and fabric. All kinds of stuff. Just like the rest of us crafters, she will never use it all, so the reality is I have even more stash than I thought. (see I got all of this packrat tendency as a genetic trait) I get to go through it on a fairly regular basis. In addition to the cool stuff, I get to spend that time with her. I also stopped in at the place I grew up. Took a couple of pictures, but it was getting late. I need to go and take several pictures there.

We watched Arizona and Tennessee play softball last night (for the National Championship) and I started graphing the names of Jesus verse from Isaiah. I will be making several versions of items from this chart as part of my CIP committment. I also have an idea for my 2008 calendar as a part of CIP. I will be parked in front of the tv again tonight, pulling hard for those Arizona girls again. Everyone else in my house is pulling for Tennessee - so it could be an interesting night. I should be able to finish the charting though.

Have a wonderful afternoon.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Your mom sounds like an awesome thrifter! I love your thrifted album. What a great landlord you have to bring you such pretty flowers!

Vallen said...

Oh the gardenias - we have a bush right outsdie the front door. The scent is delicious.
Good to hear that mom is back to fun activities. Good to hear you so happy.

Very Mary said...

What a fabulous find in that album! A coupld of months ago I thrifted a book from the 1800's. The owner had used it as a journal, so each page was covered with other pages and cut-outs from newspapers and photos, etc. It was just as great a surprise as you mention here. Isn't it fun?

Anonymous said...

So wonderful,The flowers & the album. I love reading how your "in the momment" with the simple but sweet things of life.